Foghorn Leghorn - Biography

Biography

Foghorn Leghorn is a large, white adult Leghorn rooster with a stereotypically Southern accent, a "good ol' boy" speaking style, and a penchant for mischief. The first half of his name is a joke about him being loud and obnoxious, while the second half refers to a breed of chicken (a white leghorn). He first appeared in 1946 in a Henery Hawk film titled Walky Talky Hawky. All of the motion picture Foghorn Leghorn cartoons were directed by Robert McKimson, and the rooster vies with the Tasmanian Devil as the most popular character associated with the director.

Many of the gags involved Foghorn and a canine nemesis (formally known as The Barnyard Dog within Warner today, though on early model sheets his name is given as George P. Dog) engaging in one-upmanship through a series of pranks. Unlike other Looney Tunes rivalries—with the notable exception of the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner series—Foghorn is often the initial aggressor out of self-amusement and subsequently on the 'losing' end of gags. Most common among them was Leghorn's taking up a plank of wood, while ambling along humming "Camptown Races" (the only intelligible words being "DOO-Dah! DOO-Dah!"), coming to the sleeping Dog with his front half inside his doghouse, picking up his tail and rapidly whacking (almost always with eight strokes) his exposed rear end with a plank of wood. Occasionally, Foghorn sings the song, but replaces "Camptown ladies sing this song..." with "Lump-teen-dozen and a-doo-dah day...". He does not sing any other part of the song, reverting to humming after the DOO-Dah's. Foghorn Leghorn loses his feathers very often in the episodes, usually revealing his bare skin or his boxers.

The dog would give chase, usually with his leash still attached to his collar, until the leash stretched taut and his barking was replaced by an anguished howl. At times, when the dog would continue to bark, he would also yell, "Aaaaaahhhhh, shuuutupp!!" In rare cases, it's the dog that starts the series of pranks; as such it is somewhat difficult to tell who started the feud. This gag was passed down to the Leghorns' grandson in Feather Bluster, where Foghorn was puzzled as to why the kid was behaving that way and the Dog was all too happy to remind him: "Ain't nothin' wrong with 'im, Foggy, 'cept that he takes after you."

He was joined in a few episodes by a weasel called 'Bill' who initially attempted to eat him but ended up joining forces to outwit the aforementioned canine.

Other recurring themes throughout the cartoons included the attempts of the diminutive Henery Hawk to catch and eat Foghorn, and the rooster's efforts to woo the widowed hen Miss Prissy (often by babysitting her bookish son, Egghead, Jr.).

Foghorn's voice was created by Mel Blanc and was later performed by Jeff Bergman, Joe Alaskey, Bill Farmer, Greg Burson, Jeff Glen Bennett and Frank Gorshin. According to Leonard Maltin the character's voice was patterned after a hard-of-hearing West Coast-only radio character from the 1930s, known simply as The Sheriff, on a radio program called Blue Monday Jamboree. Later, some of Foghorn's characteristic catch-phrases were drawn from the character of Senator Claghorn, a blustering Southern politician played by Kenny Delmar who was a regular character on the Fred Allen radio show.

The rooster adopted many of Claghorn's catch phrases, such as "That's a joke, I say, that's a joke, son." The references to Claghorn were obvious to much of the audience when the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons first premiered, but like many of the references in WB cartoons of the era, they have since become dated.

A toddler version of Foghorn made appearances in short music videos of Baby Looney Tunes. He starred in only one episode of the show, in which he was trying to fit in with a gang of cool roosters and employed the help of Tweety and his friends before Lola Bunny suggested to just be himself, which came in handy when Barnyard Dog chased the cool roosters.

A leghorn is a breed of chicken, and foghorn describes the character's loud, overbearing voice. At its most raucous, it sounds similar to that of another Blanc voice: Yosemite Sam (a strictly Friz Freleng character). Both parts of the name suggest the association with "Senator Claghorn."

Foghorn Leghorn made numerous appearances in Tiny Toons Adventures in numerous roles as Acme Loonervesity's Professor of Hound Teasing, Baseball Coach and an obnoxiously loud Librarian, and also a mentor of Fowlmouth. He also appears in Animaniacs on "The Warner's 65th anniversary Special". Foghorn made a cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, in the final scene at Marvin Acme's factory with several other Looney Tunes characters. The rooster appeared in two Chuck Jones shorts of the 1990s, Superior Duck (1996) and Pullet Surprise (1997), voiced on both occasions by Frank Gorshin. He was part of the Toon Squad team in Space Jam, and was a croupier at Sam's casino in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. In addition, Foghorn appeared in commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Oscar Meyer and most recently, GEICO insurance. A character named Mr. Leghorn, based on Foghorn himself, made a pair of appearances in Loonatics Unleashed.

Foghorn Leghorn made an appearance in a parody clip of Family Guy when he approached Colonel Sanders and explained that he was walking by and when he noticed the aroma of "eleven herbs and spices". Sanders decapitates Foghorn and the body is running around. The disembodied head says, "Look at that boy! Looks like a chicken with his head...wait a minute" pauses when he realizes it was himself. Foghorn Leghorn was voiced by Seth McFarlane.

Foghorn Leghorn appears in The Looney Tunes Show voiced by Jeff Bergman and his singing voice is provided by Damon Jones. In "The Foghorn Leghorn Story," Foghorn Leghorn was working on directing his autobiography by holding auditions for the person to play him. In "Working Duck," Foghorn Leghorn is shown to be the CEO of EnormoCorp where he always follows the advice of EnormoCorp's Muffin Man. Foghorn later handed the company over to Daffy (who had been working as a Muffin Man at the time). In "The Muh-Muh-Muh-Murder," Foghorn Leghorn was present at Daffy Duck's surprise birthday party at Pizzariba.